Lenovo announces LTE-friendly Vibe Z powerhouse, but has no plans for a UK launch as yet

Lenovo has taken the utterly meaningless prize as the first hardware player to announce a new smartphone in 2014 with the Vibe Z, announced along with three other Android handsets ahead of next week's CES 2014 shindig in Las Vegas.

Or has it? For if we go back to mid-November we have our own report on an identical handset being announced back then.

So what gives? Well technically the one announced in November was the dual-SIM 3G Vibe Z aimed at China, while the one unveiled today is the LTE-capable international edition – though with no plans as yet to launch it in the UK, US or Australia you'll understand our reluctance to make too much of the difference.

That aside, it's the same phone, though that's by no means a bad thing: you get a 5.5in full HD display, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor zipping along at 2.2GHz, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a 3,000mAh battery.

The camera duo looks to be particularly decent, comprising a f/1.8 13MP sensor round the back partnered by a 5MP front-facer with an 84-degree lens.

However, all of that won't mean too much unless you're expecting to find yourself in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, the UAE or the Phillipines, in which case the Lenovo Vibe Z will be available in February for the local equivalent of $549.

Lenovo has also reminded us it'll have a further three Android handsets to show off at CES 2014 next week – the S930 and S650, a pair of media-loving handsets with 6in and 4.7in screens respectively, and the downmarket A859, a dual-SIM handset with a 5in display.